Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 175

Chapter 175 - Janus’s Return - Part 1

The room the Asgard were storing Janus's cryopod in was, for all intents and purposes, completely inaccessible by any manner other than Asgard transporter. A level of precaution Eventus could appreciate given the steps he was planning on taking to secure Janus after walking him.”

“Are you sure you wish to do this?” Thor's hologram asked as it looked down at the cryopod. 

“If I'm going to be perfectly honest?” Eventus put forward as he fought to keep the grin off his face. “I'm pretty sure I had actual dreams about this while I was in stasis.”

Sure he knew from what Ganos Lal had told him that Janus had been punished for causing him to be left behind. But that didn't mean he wasn't still holding a grudge against the scientist that what he was about to do would go a long way to satisfying.

Taking a moment to check the Asgard designed stun-rod Thor had synthesized for him was ready, he finally gave a nod. “All right, let's wake him up.”

“Begining revivification procedure.” Thor said.

With that an energy field traveled vertically down the pod's interior causing the frozen cryo-fluid that had been holding the man in stasis to undergo a phase-state change and release him from its grip.

Janus's eyes began fluttering open, a strong testament to whatever modifications the scientist had made to the normal stasis procedure.

He blinked once, twice, his eyes finally focusing on Eventus as a look of general confusion flashed across his features. “Who are–”

Eventus jammed the stun-rod into the scientists bare neck, holding it there for a second longer than necessary before pulling the device back and allowing the scientist to slump bonelessly back into the pod.

“That was far more satisfying than it probably should have been.” He confessed as he hooked the stun-rod onto his belt.

“I expect the recording will be quite popular on the datanet.” Thor agreed.

Reaching down, Eventus began the somewhat arduous task of disrobing the man. “The fact he managed to weave a minor scattering effect into his clothing specifically tuned to prevent Asgard translocation technology from separating his clothing from his body honestly amazes me.”

“He and Loki were often known to collaborate before his disappearance.” Thor offered apologetically. “It is likely Loki shared the nanocircuitry designs with him during one of those occurrences.”

It took several minutes to get everything off the scientist, but the sheer number of small devices secured within the various garments the scientist had been wearing was all the confirmation needed for the necessity of the act.

“How much are you able to identify?” Thor inquired as he eyed the pile.

“Not much.” Eventus admitted honestly. “I recognize the green crystal on his left bracer as a dimensional shift type personal cloaking device. And I think the silver rod in his boot might be a descendant of the type ninety seven multi-tool. But the rest looks like the type of custom could be anything gear the maintenance corps would sometimes find on break away field researchers.”

It had never been technically illegal to go off and try to make it on your own. At least, so long as you didn't break the greater proscriptions and start doing things like enslaving people.or trying to create a self replicating swarm. But it did mean the person doing so lost access to Lantean protection and production facilities. Which meant they had tended to get… creative, when it came to hidden and disguised technological capabilities.

“I will move them to secure storage.” Thor nodded, and the pile disappeared with a flash of light as another engulfed Janus leaving him clothed in cloth based facsimile of his previous outfit.

Setting a hand on Janus’s head, Eventus began the delicate task of healing the self-inflicted damage the scientist had done to himself.

If he had been using a healing device instead of his own psychic powers, the targeted manner of the damage would have made recovering any lost memories extremely difficult. But the almost conceptual nature of psychic abilities meant that when he healed the man it was less healing as people normally thought about it and more restoring the scientist’s body to its previous healthy state.

Finishing with that, and flushing the linger energy of the stun effect from Janus’s body, Eventus slapped the man a couple times to bring him back around.

A tension seemed to grip Janus’s body as his eyes flew open, his irises quickly flicking from Eventus to the holographic Thor, and then to their surroundings before returning to the Lantean and letting out a short breath. 

“Apologies.” He offered as he pushed himself up, prompting Eventus to take a step back so the scientist wouldn’t be in grabbing range. “I was expecting, well, that’s not important.” Frowning at Eventus, he studied him for a moment before an odd look settled onto his face. “You’ll have to forgive me, you look familiar, have we met before?”

Eventus’s eye twitched. “The giant telepathic squid?”

Janus furrowed his brow for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t recall you from that, were you involved?”

“The purge of bio-research moon epsilon?” Eventus tried.

Janus frowned before shaking his head again.

“The rescue of the Horatiao? The demolition of the wandering horde moon? The swarm of self replicating photionic constructs?”

With each negative Eventus found his annoyance growing, because nobody could be that self absorbed. 

He threw up his hands. “I used to empty the hazardous material bins in your secret lab!”

“Oh,” Janus muttered, and for a moment Eventus had a brief flare of hope only for it to be extinguished when the scientist frowned. “Which secret lab was that?”

Eventus’s eye twitched again. “I was on the team that brought Elizabeth Wier’s remains back to the city for resuscitation.”

“That’s it!” Janus exclaimed in seeming realization. “Sorry, it has been more than a few centuries.” He frowned again as a sudden worry seemed to hit. “What date is it?”

“Ten thousand one hundred and seventeen solar cycles post Pegasus exodus.” Eventus said.

Janus let out a breath. “Good, I was a bit worried there for a moment due to…” He trailed off, suddenly seeming to remember just who else was in the room with him.

“I know about the timeship.” Eventus admitted drolly. “The Earthlings recovered it a little over a year ago from that planet you left it on.”

That seemed to cause Janus to perk up. “Oh good, I was a bit worried the temporal loop I was attempting to set up with the pillars wouldn’t work out.”

“They then went on to use the timeship to break time at least twice.” Eventus added in since he didn’t want to sound like he was supportive of anything to do with that mess.

“I do recall that.” Janus nodded, taking a moment to stretch before climbing up out of the cryo- pod. “One of them went on to have children with my sister if you can believe it.”

Eventus frowned, really hoping he hadn’t heard that right. “Children, as in plural?”

“Oh yes,” Janus nodded. “They were together for nearly twenty cycles before they managed to Ascend.”

Glancing around the closed off room once more, his eyes finally settled on Thor’s hologram and a pleased smile graced the corner of his lips. “Supreme Commander Thor, a pleasant surprise, I take it this is your vessel?”

“Currently,” Thor nodded. “Its capabilities are potentially required to clean up one of your messes.”

Frowning slightly, Janus turned his gaze from Thor back to Eventus. “Do you mean mine in particular, or in the more general sense of something my people left lying around?”

“The more general sense.” Eventus clarified since the scientist himself hadn’t really had much to do with the Asuran program. “Let me explain…”

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Author’s Notes: You clean up after a guy for centuries and he doesn’t even notice, but save the girl he likes once and somehow that’s all it takes. :D No appreication!